The Sedona International Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. More than 165 films – from Oscar-nominated documentaries to narrative features, documentaries and shorts – will screen through March 3.

Barring additional snow accumulation, road closures or alien abductions, I plan to catch nine films over four days.

I mention alien abduction because it factors into the plot of Eleven Eleven, an Arizona-made, Sedona-set sci-fi comedy that will have its Arizona premiere Monday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., with an encore screening Thursday, Feb. 28, at 4:15 p.m.

Your blogger with Christina Rose and Charles Baker on the set of “Eleven Eleven” in 2014.

I was lucky enough to visit the set of Eleven Eleven in 2014 at the invitation of actress Christina Rose (How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song, Favor), a longtime friend of this blog. I spent an evening with the cast and crew as they filmed a scene at a home not far from the Sedona film festival’s venues. Over the course of the evening, I interviewed Rose, lead actor Charles Baker and director Chris Redish.

Baker, one of the nicest people I’ve ever interviewed, was starting a new phase of his career after six seasons of playing Skinny Pete on Breaking Bad. While playing the “dumb, funny guy” on the Emmy-winning TV show opened up new opportunities for him, many of those were opportunities to play the same sort of role.

“It kind of became the paradigm that I’m the drug addict,” he told me. “It’s hard to get out of that. A lot of producers don’t want to have to be creative about their choices. They want to just look at a picture and say, ‘Yeah, that’s our drug addict.’” Indeed, he played another one the next year in the first season of TNT’s Murder in the First. But Baker said he was nothing like his Breaking Bad character: “I am a family guy. I have a wife and kids … and I wanted people to see that in me.”

In Eleven Eleven, Baker plays the lead role, Tim Faris.

“He’s a bit of a Trekkie,” Baker said. “He has his own business giving UFO tours in Sedona, Ariz., the UFO capital of the country. He’s a very devoted family man [but] he has some dark secrets – some Close Encounters kind of stuff.”

In a nutshell, Faris had a one-night stand with an alien 16 years earlier, but managed to keep it secret from his wife and the half-alien daughter they are raising. When sexy alien Andromeda (Krista Allen) returns to Earth intent on reigniting their passion and getting to know her daughter, Faris’ life starts to unwind.

Faris’ wife, Eve, is played by Phoenix-based actress Jennifer Pfalzgraff. Rose plays their daughter, Mallory.

Faris is “everything that I wanted to play,” Baker said. “I wanted to play a father. I wanted to play a family man. I wanted to play a noble character with a noble purpose. And a flawed character at the same time.”

A Busy Schedule

Beyond the sci-fi realm, I am intrigued to see Windows on the World, about a young Mexican man who travels to New York in search of his father, an undocumented immigrant working at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Edward James Olmos plays the father.

I also plan to see Buffalo Boys, an Indonesian spin on the classic Western, and Ode to Joy, an oddball love story set in New York with an all-star cast.

Four documentaries are on my list, the most challenging of which is likely to be Bias, which explores how unconscious bias defines relationships, workplaces, the justice system and technology – and whether it’s possible to “de-bias” our brains. Also timely is Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People, about the media magnate who spoke of “fake news” more than a century ago. In addition, I plan to see Bathtubs Over Broadway, about Broadway-style musical shows put together solely for corporate audiences, and Wyeth, about the American artist.

For those around later in the week, a popular choice should be The Bill Murrary Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man, in which people discuss their legendary random encounters with the beloved actor. In addition, Ed Asner returns to Sedona for a screening of the documentary Ed Asner: On Stage and Off.

Most of the festival screenings are at the Harkins Sedona 6, but a few are across the street at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre or down the road at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. Click here for the full schedule.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications. 

Tags: alien, Bathtubs over Broadway, Bias, Breaking Bad, Buffalo Boys, Charles Baker, Chris Redish, Christina Rose, Ed Asner: On Stage and Off, Edward James Olmos, Eleven Eleven, Jennifer Pfalzgraff, Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People, Krista Allen, Ode to Joy, Sedona International Film Festival, The Bill Murrary Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man, UFO, Windows on the World, Wyeth